First, the article isn’t “news” at all, since all the events occurred over two decades ago. The implication that the Boys Scouts are still allowing sexual predators to serve in their ranks is false.

Second, the emphasis of the article is on some secret Boy Scout list from the 1970’s that was supposed to keep repeat homosexual predators out of scouting. The list failed to keep some predators from repeating their perversions, probably because it was not consistently checked when new leaders signed up. However, this list has not been the primary means of screening sexual predators for decades!

Having been the adult leader of a Cub Scout Pack, I was involved in leader selection and screening from 1998 to 2007. We never checked any secret Boy Scout list to screen our leaders. We went to the police department, who ran the screening to search for registered sex offenders. Nowadays, this can be done online. However, this was not the only method the Boy Scouts used to prevent of sexual abuse. Following the abuse outlined in the LA Times article, the Boy Scouts implemented youth protection training in 1990. The training was required for all leaders, Scouts and Scouting parents. One of the key provisions of youth protection was that a leader was never allowed to be one on one with any Scout at any time. Two-deep leadership prevented all the abuse that had occurred in previous decades, which is why the LA Times article could not report abuse after 1991. The LA Times article does not mention any of this information, but just left the impression that abuse of Boy Scout youth was an ongoing problem. Shame on them!